[TAG] Language choice

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 07:16:12PM +0100, Thomas Adam wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 13:44:04 -0400
> "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> > This program, when done, sold and shipped, needs to be able to install
> > and run reliably on all target platforms without conflicting with, or,
> > really, depending on, whatever language runtimes might or might not
> > already be there.  I don't object to depending on what's there, or
> 
> Ok. So as long as you ensure you compile against a modern glibc, you
> should be fine. But what you cannot expect is something near perfect. If
> a potential target doesn't have XYZ installed then they should ensure
> so. Clearly versions of dependencies <= compiled_version will be OK, and
> you can test for that.

Um, "perl"?  "Python"?  *Modules*...?

> > brilliant installers, or any of that stuff, but on SCO, I'm likely to
> > have an ancient Perl and no Python at all...
> 
> That should be not be a problem.

So why do I think so?

> > So, again, going back to Fred Brooks' System Program Product concept
> > (you know, the thing that takes 9 times as long as a simple hack? :-),
> > what is the best approach to this?
> 
> Well, if you do have an antiquated version of XYZ where you know that in
> most cases the software on the target machines might well be newer, it
> should be a safe [1] approach to assume that the code you have is
> "backwards compatible" with what you produced -- i.e. it won't be using
> the newer features possibily present.

I dunno, Thomas.  I just don't feel like you and I are having the same
conversation...  Thanks, though.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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	"You know: I'm a fan of photosynthesis as much as the next guy,
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